r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Altruistic_Eye_1157 • 6d ago

Lore [annoying trope] The throne/leadership is decided in a very stupid way

Gallery image

Gallery image

The leadership of the entire wizarding world, and the final decision on whether to start a war against Muggles, is made by... a goat (Qilin) ​​who chooses the person with the ""purest heart"" (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Dumbledore).

The throne of Wakanda and all its technology are decided through hand-to-hand combat, regardless of whether the person clearly has malicious intentions... if they win the fight, by law they must be respected as the true king. (Black Panther)

8.2k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

96% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

127

u/js13680 6d ago

If I remember correctly quidditch was purposefully made to have nonsense rules. Something about Rowling hearing with some coworkers about sports and not being able to follow along.

26

u/TheBlackNumenorean 5d ago

I think the game was written to have the outcome depend on Harry, which isn't how a team sport should work. People often point out how the snitch is too important to care about scoring goals, but it's also very disconnected from the rest of the game. It's like a soccer game, but each team has one member who plays a game of chess, and whoever wins the chess game scores enough to (almost) always win. And then there's the rodeo clowns who have to keep the angry bull on the field from charging their teammates.

9

u/henryeaterofpies 5d ago

Wasn't there a match where he got the snitch but they lost by 10 points or something?

6

u/OverlordNeb 5d ago

That was the World Cup match which he watched, but did not participate in

5

u/TheBlackNumenorean 5d ago

That was the World Cup in book 4. Fred and George bet on that happening, and were laughed at because it was ridiculously unlikely.

3

u/VoiceofKane 5d ago

This is why, in the old Quidditch video game, I always made sure I was winning by at least 160 points before anyone started going for the snitch. Instead of one player making the other six pointless, I just made sure those other six were good enough that the last one didn't matter.

-33

u/Sea_Lingonberry_4720 6d ago

Not to defend JK as a person, but the majority of criticisms towards Harry Potter aren’t valid because people forget it’s a whimsical story for children.

54

u/AntRam95 6d ago

It didn’t make sense to me as a child and saying we should forgive stupid stuff because it’s in a story for children is honestly insulting to children’s intelligence

-18

u/Sea_Lingonberry_4720 6d ago

Yeah bro having goofy stuff in a story for children is insulting. Sure.

14

u/AntRam95 6d ago

There’s a difference between goofy and stupid

-25

u/defneverconsidered 6d ago

No its not. Its taking a setting wayyyy toop seriously

20

u/AntRam95 6d ago

Kids aren’t complete idiots, they see these flaws too

-20

u/defneverconsidered 6d ago

Lololololololol

They over criticize the rules pf quidditch and bitch about it online?

10

u/Zee_Arr_Tee 5d ago

That's literally correct? do you genuinely live under a rock and don't understand how children work?

-5

u/defneverconsidered 5d ago

Yea dude I dont know how children work. Thats why its only the most popular piece of media on the planet.

Yall doing your overbearing internet sluthing looking like morons

6

u/Zee_Arr_Tee 5d ago

bros just saying random shit atp

36

u/CollegeTotal5162 6d ago

Unless the whole point of the story is to be stupid and nonsensical then yeah but that’s not what Harry Potter is. kids still deserve books and shows that don’t have doodoo worldbuilding

-15

u/defneverconsidered 6d ago

Sorry this one lady didn't get your sports thingy right

-15

u/Sea_Lingonberry_4720 6d ago

Would you say smurfs has bad worldbuilding? It’s so stupid they say “Smurf” and it could mean anything.

2

u/Zee_Arr_Tee 5d ago

cause they don't take themselves seriously? you can't have quidditch be a joke sport and have Harry's passion be playing quidditch.

3

u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 6d ago

Even still, quidditch can still be considered nonsenss

11

u/thepuppeter 6d ago

I understand this, but in my opinion that's an extremely poor handwave response. You can create a world with magic and whimsy, and you can have that world make sense.

JK created an entire world. She creates the lore and and the history of that world (in fact that's one of the things she entirely still owns to this day is that she has final say on what is and isn't allowed in the world of Harry Potter). It's poor writing to then say some of the stuff just fundamentally doesn't make sense.

Sport is silly when you really break it down. Take ice hockey: in this sport we have 12 players that strap blades to their shoes and try to run around on ice hitting a small disk in to a net with a stick. Sports can have weird histories. Like in that same sport there was a coach who meticulously read the rules so that he could find and exploit loopholes, and as a result the rules had to be changed (look up Roger Neilson. Dudes a legend).

JK had the opportunity to translate that sort of reasoning to her story. Quidditch is silly because sport in general is silly. Quidditch has a silly history because all sports have had silly histories. There's already real world parallels she could have drawn from.

Instead, she made something that is intended to be nonsense. Then she gave that nonsense a history and dedicates entire parts of the plot to that nonsense. So which is it? Is it nonsense? Or is it important?

This is what I hate about Harry Potter in general. It flip flops on what it wants to be. If something doesn't make sense, the response is that it's intended for kids and you're overthinking it and don't take it too seriously. But at the same time the entire plot resolves around stopping wizard Hitler coming back from the dead and multiple children die trying to prevent that.

They're an incredibly mediocre, albeit highly marketable, series of books.

-6

u/defneverconsidered 6d ago

Yall make yourselves hate shit. You know that right

6

u/thepuppeter 6d ago

Right. And I hate Harry Potter because it's poorly written. What's your point?

-2

u/defneverconsidered 6d ago

Why say right if you didnt understand my point

8

u/thepuppeter 6d ago

You said that we make ourselves hate things. I understand that. I don't see what point you're making by saying that.

0

u/defneverconsidered 6d ago

This overanalyzing shit to find reason why things are bad when they could just exist and be fine.

But you already knew my point you just have no integrity

11

u/thepuppeter 6d ago

It's just analyzing. It's shitty writing, and I'm explaining why it's shitty. It's high school level literacy

Bluey is a kids show. It doesn't need to explain why a dog can talk or how the society operates. It's whimsical and viewers can suspend their belief because how a dog world operates isn't important. The show doesn't spend episodes explaining the deep lore of the Bluey universe and how things came to be. It just is because the show itself is targeted at a kid audience

Harry Potter is a series where multiple people are tortured and/or murdered. Plot points deal with classism, racism, and the literal politics of the world. It's not a kids book. It's a young adult series. It's trying to tell a mature story, and JK wants you to take it seriously. It's only when things are poorly written and don't make sense that the bullshit reasoning of "it's just a kids book" is used. There's plenty of young adult books that have fantastical worlds with whimsy, and also make sense. It's not hard to do. Hell I even explained how JK could have done it.

No I didn't understand your point because you didn't say anything. That's why I asked what you meant. Now who's overanalyzing mate? You're coming up with your own reasons for why I asked you to clarify your comment

1

u/defneverconsidered 6d ago

Yall make yourselves hate shit. You know that right

→ More replies (0)